Following an announcement that the Scottish Conservatives are supporting proposals for a new medical school to be opened in Inverness, Edward Mountain MSP commented:
“Currently the cost of locum, bank and agency staff in the Highlands is running at £20m. We struggle to recruit in our rural and island areas and I think this initiative will not only save money but more importantly ensure Highland and Island communities get the future medical cover they need.
“Encouraging the education of doctors and nurses in Inverness is the first step towards reducing the amount of payments NHS Highland have to make to locum and agency staff.
“If we can train and recruit staff for the NHS in the Highlands we are more likely to keep them. More importantly, a medical school in Inverness will ensure our hospitals can remain open.
I support this initiative which will ultimately strengthen our NHS."
The Shadow Health Secretary, Miles Briggs, commented:
"I visited the fantastic Department of Nursing and Midwifery at the Centre for Health Science, Inverness Campus alongside my colleague Highlands & Island colleague, Edward Mountain during the summer recess and saw at first hand the positive work being undertaken around nursing and midwifery training.
I believe there is a positive case for the development of a new Medical Degree and Medical School based in the North and want to start taking forward conversations to help achieve this.
Under the proposal a new medical school in Inverness could see an additional 150 medical training places developed with the potential for an additional 750 places to study Medicine being made available to Scots to help address the shortage of Medics and GPs working in our NHS over the course of the next Parliament."